EGPC eyes $2 billion loan

London, January 9, 2010

Egypt's state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) is looking to secure a $2 billion, 58-month debt financing that will be used for export finance, bankers said.

Banks have formed several bidding groups for the financing and the deadline is January 18, the bankers added.

The company invited banks in mid-December to pitch for a either a pre-export syndicated loan, a bond or a mix of the two, a banker at a European lender said.

Pricing is expected to be below 300 basis points (bps) over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the banker added, which would be quite a step down from EGPC's previous deal agreed only three months ago -- a $900 million pre-export finance loan that carried a margin of 350 bps over Libor with a shorter 46-month maturity. .

While the previous loan was secured on crude oil exports, the new deal will be secured on naptha exports, the banker said.

The deal is attracting a lot of interest from international lenders looking to diversify their loan portfolios, the banker said.

'With many banks, especially among the pre-export finance lenders, heavily over-exposed to Russia and specifically to Russian oil, the rarity value of EGPC makes quite a compelling case,' the banker said.

This interest is also strengthened by those international lenders active in the Middle East and North Africa that are looking to invest in something away from Dubai real estate, the banker added. – Reuters